Welcome back to White Rose of Avalon my Darlings. This week’s Femme Fatale Friday is a Summer Solstice special about Aine, Irish Faery Queen Goddess deeply associated with Midsummer! Aine’s name is often translated to mean ‘Bright’ or ‘Delight’ which makes sense given her Solar associations. Aine’s name is also sometimes said to mean ‘Splendor’, ‘Radiance’, ‘Fame’, or ‘Swiftness’. Her Solar associations are also part of why she is so associated with the Summer months, particularly Midsummer and Lughnasadh. She is a Faery Queen Goddess whose tales originated in Ireland, particularly in Munster. Sometimes Aine is seen as being connected to Anu, or Danu, the most preeminent Goddess of ancient Ireland, with the Tuatha de Danaan (the Irish Fae Folk) being named for her, as it translated to ‘Children of the Goddess Danu, or Anu’. It is also said that she sometimes is associated with St. Anne, possibly relating to the facts that Faery Queen Goddesses often live as humans for a time (after which they return to the Otherworld as full deities once again), and during the early Christian period, Goddesses were often made Saints in an attempt to adopt them into Christianity, so that the people who converted could still pray to them. She is also connected with the Irish Goddess Grain, or Grainne, of which we know very little, other than the link of her and Aine likely being sisters.
Aine is known to be a Goddess associated with love, desire, and fertility, often protecting against illness. She is known to be very Sovereign, answering only to herself, and taking many lovers both human and Divine, which is why she is often said to have had a large number of half-human and half-Faery children, with many people of Irish descent having a familial link to Aine! Her nature as a Sovereignty Goddess is also connected to her ability to both legitimize and destroy Kings in her tales. Aine is often called upon for assistance with love, romance, protection, and infertility.
It is common for Aine to appear in the form of a beautiful woman or a red mare, or even in the form of a Mermaid combing her long hair on what is called ‘the Birthing Stone’ in Lough Gur! Her Mermaid appearance links well to her nature as a Goddess associated with fertility and sexuality. She has also been known to make appearances in Cnoc Aine, which is named for her, in the form of an old woman. If you meet her in one of these forms and are kind and polite, she can bless you with good fortune, however, disrespect can spell trouble, which is true for any Faery Queen! Respect is essential for all deities and all Fae folk in general. If you do not show proper respect for Spiritual Beings, things can go wrong fast!
As I mentioned above, Aine is strongly associated with the Sun, the color Red is sacred to her (as she sometimes appears as a Red Mare), Horses, Cows, and Bees are her sacred animals, and her elemental association is Fire. All of this is quite obviously shown in her tales and certainly deeply rooted in her connection to being a Faery Queen of Summer, with all of her Golden Solar energy on full display at this time of year! All of her connections to love, sexuality, and fertility, of both the land and of people, align with the Solar aspect and live-giving rays of the Sun, nourishing plants during the Summer months. Aine has been very loved for centuries well past the beginning of the Christian era, and is often said to be “the best hearted woman who ever lived”.
I hope you have enjoyed learning a bit more about Aine, the Great Faery Queen of Midsummer for this Solstice Season! What is your favorite aspect of Aine? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
Note: If you have enjoyed this post about Aine as the Faery Queen of Midsummer, I also have a new blog post on my Patreon delving into Titania as a Summery Faery Queen from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which is a great companion piece to this post!
Note on Image: The image at the top of the post is Aine. I found the image on https://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends/aine-radiant-celtic-goddess-007097.
LINK TO AVALONIAN ROSE FAERY MYSTERIES PATREON: https://patreon.com/AvalonianRoseFaeryMysteries?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink
Tarot Note: I have a page offering tarot and oracle readings for those interested in these services! I am very happy to be offering these readings to my treasured readers at White Rose of Avalon! Link to page: https://whiteroseofavalon.life/tarot-and-oracle-readings/
Further Reading
- Encyclopedia of Spirits by Judika Illes
- A New Dictionary of Fairies by Morgan Daimler
- Fairy Queens by Morgan Daimler
- Your Goddess Year by Skye Alexander
- Celtic Goddess Grimoire by Annwyn Avalon
White Rose of Avalon 